Pinsent Masons corporate senior associate Amie Norris’s 2017 began with a four-month secondment to the firm’s London office. Norris’s work on Lyceum Capital Partners takeover of Timico Technology took up the vast majority of those four months before she headed home to the North West. However, while in the capital Norris developed a range of […]
Making partner six years ago, Amy Jacks has risen through the ranks to play a pivotal role in the development of DLA Piper’s core financial sector team, arguably one of the most strategically important areas to the firm. Key clients As head of DLA Piper’s City restructuring practice, Jacks was particularly busy during 2017 on […]
Promoted to partner in 2016, Charles Hayes is a rising star in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s corporate department. CVC Hayes has developed a particularly strong relationship with CVC Capital Partners. He acted on a multitude of deals for the private equity giant in 2017, including closing CVC’s £3.6bn sale of Formula One in January 2017. Since […]
Emma Danks, who joined Taylor Wessing as a partner in 2010, may be one of the firm’s most successful ever laterals – a firm reason for including her in The Lawyer Hot 100 2018. And 2017 was quite a year for the Taylor Wessing corporate partner. She was appointed head of private equity, making her […]
DLA Piper partner James Kerrigan is Manchester’s private equity king. Indeed, he is one of the most active private equity dealmakers in the UK, leading on cross-border transactions that involved both partners in the UK and the rest of the DLA network. Kerrigan has benefitted from a wave of private equity activity into Manchester over […]
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) partner Elizabeth Bradley has elevated tax-related matters from a niche area to the top of her firm’s agenda. She has been at BLP for 18 years, and made her practice of critical strategic importance. Bradley leads a tax team of more than 138 practitioners internationally, with the firm expanding its […]
Litigator Kirsten Massey’s hunger for big-ticket, international work took her all the way from New Zealand to London. She took a risk leaving local firm Russell McVeagh for Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and was told to expect a dial-down in work. That didn’t happen – instead, she landed herself the most senior role on the […]
Stephenson Harwood litigation partner Ros Prince’s role on a growing number of significant cases is gaining her a reputation as a rising star in the fraud arena. They also contributed towards her being made joint head of fraud and joint head of the firm’s Russia/CIS team in 2017. That’s good going for only a second-year partner. […]
Product liability lawyer Rod Freeman’s move from Hogan Lovells to Cooley was more than just your average lateral hire. By joining one of the world’s top technology-focused firms, Freeman was offering a glimpse into the future. How so? Partly because while Cooley is a relatively new player in Europe, as a tech firm through and […]
Sharpe Pritchard partner Trevor Griffiths was propelled into the limelight in 2017 following the much-reported school attendance and holidays in term time case. Judicial review expertise Isle of Wight Council v Platt was expedited to the Supreme Court in January 2017. From there the debate turned on the definition of ‘regular’ attendance at school. Griffiths, […]
2017 was a big year for Bristows litigation partner Anna Cook, who joined the IP specialist from RPC in August 2016. Indeed, Cook has made a serious impression at her new firm over the past 18 months, notably working on one of last year’s largest advertising technology cases along with numerous smaller disputes for long-term […]
As a former chemistry student, Hogan Lovells IP partner Daniel Brook has honed his legal and science knowledge to become indispensable to several of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies looking to safeguard their products. One of the most important judgments last year was Eli Lilly’s landmark patent trial against pharmaceutical rival Actavis. Brook took the […]
UK telecoms infrastructure company CityFibre’s CEO Greg Mesch describes his company’s mission as “building Gigabit Britain”. At the core of that build-out is company secretary and head of legal Chris Gawn, a lawyer who certainly has his hands full. Top telecoms deals CityFibre had a stellar 2017, with what looked like being its deal of […]
Until the end of 2017 Ece Gürsoy was chief legal officer and company secretary of renewables company Lightsource. For six years, she helped the company become the leading utility scale solar power generator in the UK. Gürsoy joined the company in 2011. Having started her life in law practising in Turkey, she requalifyed as […]
Until 2016 Kate Burns had spent all her working life at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, first as an associate and then in the management team. It was during this time she was first talent-spotted for the Hot 100 in 2012. The step from global legal institution to a lean internet retailer was enormous, but Burns immediately […]
Rolls-Royce’s top litigator Deborah D’Aubney has had quite a time of it recently. Most notably, her role defending the company in the high-profile bribery case brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Department of Justice in the US ended with a deferred prosecution agreement in January last year. The immediate challenge for […]
Working 3.5 days a week, Vicky Sandry is a strong advocate of career development and flexibility. She began her career at Sky as a competition and regulatory lawyer in 2005. Since 2016 she has been general counsel. Sandry leads a department of over 130 staff that provides legal support to Sky’s UK and Ireland business. […]
Rob Booth joined Crown Estate in 2012 from Herbert Smith Freehills. In 2016 he was promoted to general counsel and company secretary. Since then he has led a legal team through a raft of major deals, such as the transfer of Crown Estate to the Scottish Government in the wake of the independence referendum, a demerger that […]
Essex Court Chambers’ Toby Landau QC is an exemplar of the world-class lawyers the UK exports to the global market. He not only appears for multinational corporations before the UK courts in landmark litigation cases, but also runs an internationally renowned arbitration practice. In 2017 he secured an important arbitration-related decision in the Supreme Court […]
Sonia Tolaney QC is one of the Bar’s most celebrated silks. She was previously recognised in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 for appearing on the winning side in two of the most significant cases of 2009. She represented Centrica in its £182m claim against consultancy Accenture and Nationwide Building Society in its bank charges case against […]
Newly returned from maternity leave in 2017, Victoria Wakefield was one of the most active barristers in court in the second half of the year. The highlights were certainly the two Supreme Court cases where she was making submissions in her own right despite being led as a junior. The first was R (on the […]
Judith Ayling came to the law late after a successful career in publishing. She has since made a name for herself in the world of personal injury and clinical negligence. A full schedule in 2017 saw her as the junior representing Ian Paterson, a breast cancer surgeon sued over claims of botched mastectomies. This was […]
Outside the courtroom 11KBW employment and sports silk Sean Jones QC is one of the legal world’s most eminent Twitterati. Inside, he worked on a series of landmark cases in what was a challenging year. In one of his biggest successes (acting alongside barrister Amy Rogers, also of 11KBW), Jones won a landmark Supreme Court […]
3 Verulam Buildings junior barrister Nathaniel Bird gains a prime spot in this year’s Hot 100 for the number of high-profile instructions he has taken on since he joined as a pupil. In 2016, he was instructed alongside Mark Howard QC at Brick Court Chambers in the £2.3bn dispute between Terra Firma and Citibank. He […]
The cultural change Stephens Scown managing partner Robert Camp has instigated at the firm is huge. He has moved it from one where staff felt communication was poor and partners aloof to one that wins ‘best place to work’ awards. ‘Scownership’ The flagship initiative is ‘Scownership’, whereby everyone has a stake in the business. It […]
Last year saw a series of victories for Mayer Brown’s first female London senior partner. Litigator Sally Davies fought off tough competition from two other candidates to win the partner vote last year and succeed Sean Connolly, who stepped down after 10 years leading the London office. Global view Alongside her five-year term as London […]
Rachael Heenan has been senior partner at Capsticks for less than a year, but she has already overseen a transition that will change the way the firm is seen in the market. Not content to stand still, Heenan joined Capsticks from DAC Beachcroft in 2014 because it was “one step ahead”. Her achievements so far […]
When former Trowers & Hamlins lawyer James Knight launched Keystone Law back in 2002 the New Law firm had a total headcount of three: Knight, fellow founder Charlie Stringer and one PA. Jump forward to November 2017 and Keystone’s dispersed model had gained sufficient traction not only to grow total headcount exponentially (it now has […]
This time last year Mark Quigley was just taking the helm as Sintons’ first-ever managing partner. There was no blueprint and no advice from a predecessor. Instead, Quigley has led the firm by his own rules. Tech drive In the 12 months he has been in charge of the Newcastle-based firm, Quigley has stressed the […]
2017 saw the first-ever major leadership change at Hodge Jones & Allen (HJA) when founding member Patrick Allen stood down as head of the firm after 40 years. Allen handed the reins to personal injury head Vidisha Joshi who, at 39, is one of the youngest lawyers in the country to run a major firm. […]
Burges Salmon has unexpectedly become a major player in the legal fintech space, on a par with international firms and the magic circle. This is in part thanks to head of fintech Adrian Shedden. Shedden rose through the associate ranks to create a platform for the firm to advise institutions such as the Financial Conduct […]
Technology is continuing to change the way lawyers serve clients and Latham & Watkins associate Stuart Davis is part of the latest wave of innovators, assisting many of the firm’s financial services customers in their adoption of new technologies. Davis specialises in financial services regulatory advice. One of the largest transactions he was involved in […]
It’s testament to Kerry Westland’s work, and Addleshaw Goddard’s approach to law, that most of the roles she has had with the firm didn’t exist before she filled them. The role Westland is in now – head of innovation & legal technology – didn’t exist a year ago and it’s anyone’s guess which one she’ll […]
In a year marked by the relentless advance of artificial intelligence products from a growing number of providers, it was notable that in 2017 Linklaters opted to produce its own technology solution in-house. Partha Mudgil is chief operating officer of Nakhoda (the name means ‘navigator’ in Malay), a start-up aimed at combining technology with the […]
Allen & Overy’s (A&O) ‘Fuse’ initiative last year was one of the landmark legal market developments in terms of highlighting the extent to which traditional firms are remodelling their businesses. Spearheading Fuse is derivatives lawyer Shruti Ajitsaria, an angel investor in her free time, who came up with the idea while on a jam-packed maternity […]
In recent years Mishcon de Reya has made a name for itself as a technology-focused business and, when it comes to real estate, none of its lawyers are more engaged than Nick Kirby. The managing associate and property specialist specifically asked to work with Mishcon’s chief strategy officer Nick West to develop tech-driven solutions for […]